


Calico

by grayorca15, YearwalktheWorld



Series: Skynet: 900 [24]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Wings, Drabble, Drama, Gen, Platonic Relationships, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has a Different Name
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-28 14:04:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19813819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grayorca15/pseuds/grayorca15, https://archiveofourown.org/users/YearwalktheWorld/pseuds/YearwalktheWorld
Summary: Wings AU. There’s always a bigger fish.





	Calico

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to “Facsimile” and “Translation Issues”.
> 
> Posted slightly too late for World Orca Day.
> 
> #whocares

The door to the once-low-lit repair bay banged on its hinges, interrupting any answer he was about to get. Putting the interface on hold, Noah spared a tired look over his shoulder.

Their visitor was just who he expected.

“Back so soon, Detective?”

“Damn right. A fucking giraffe  _ licked _ me, Noah!”

...Um- 

(Yeah. Let’s rewind this a bit.)

——-

_ 30 Minutes Earlier _

——-

“So. We're fucking back at this shit… can't even lie, Noah, even  _ I'm  _ a little worried for these robot fish.” Shaking his head with some exaggeration, Gavin at least didn't seem to be lying about the bit of worry part. His brows were still creased, as if he truly wasn't without his own doubts. 

Noah might have considered it genuine if the detective had bothered to amend ‘fish’ to something more accurate. Then again, he hadn’t yet revealed just which one of the Detroit Zoo’s OO models had been damaged. For the time being, it was better left unsaid.

At present, they stood outside the holographic-themed gate to the stadium. Instead of the colorful adverts featuring leaping and diving images of whales, the light-thin posters to either side alternated between red, diagonally-barred messages of EXHIBIT CLOSED and NO ENTRY - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.

Without stepping over the threshold, Noah swept a hand over the entryway turnstile, validating their identities. Normally it was the pedestal at which paying visitors would normally wave a ticket. The nearby speaker chimed an affirmative all the same now.

“Considering what happened last time, I’d definitely recommend you retire to the cafeteria and allow me the preliminary… ‘interview’.”

“Uh, yeah… I ain't even gonna argue with that shit. Would much rather not get torn to shreds, at least for the time being.” Grimacing as he clearly remembered the details of just what the android orca had done to another, Gavin backed up half a pace. “Fuck, if it can do that shit to another android, I ain't gettin’ in the middle of it. I ain't the one who speaks whale.” 

Affecting an eyeroll without any of the true annoyance to go with it, Noah gestured back toward the path they had just followed. “Perhaps one of the other exhibits may prove more benign, then? If the cafeteria isn’t entertainment enough- ”

“Ah, yeah? You really think there's gonna be some non spooky-ass shit back there? I saw a sign for fucking bats, Noah. I ain't lookin’ at those.” Taking a skeptical glance backwards at a sign again, Gavin shrugged. “Eh. I guess it's better than the fuckin’ cafeteria though.” 

Unless they had improved their formula for coffee, or lifted the ban against smoking in a public dining area, nothing better awaited than last time.

Hearing the distant caw of a peacock - one of several free-roaming species the zoo featured across its expansive property - Noah raised an eyebrow. “Pick whichever one you will. I’ll notify you in the event I require help.”

“Yeah, something tells me you won't. Say hi to the fish for me.” Rolling his eyes at that, Gavin turned on his heel to walk off, leaving Noah with the privacy he needed to continue the case. 

——-

As it turned out, the exhibit Reed had thought to view was of the visitor-interaction variety, elevated to petting height. The four reticulated giraffes hadn’t been shy about greeting him at the platform, either.

Or perhaps that wasn’t what Gavin had intended at all.

Despite how aghast his partner looked, Noah couldn’t help an amused scoff. “You must have smelled of acacia to them.”

“What? That makes no goddamned fucking sense, Noah! They tried to fuckin’ - bathe me! Look at this shit!” Wiping a hand over one of his cheeks, Gavin let out a screech when it came back visibly wet - evidently not having got all of the saliva off yet. 

“It was a joke, Detective. By definition it wasn’t meant to make sense.” Reaching into his jacket, fishing through what few provisions the pockets contained, Noah found just the thing they needed: a handkerchief. A plain tan square emblazoned in the corner with the Detroit Zoo’s branding logo, they were left stacked in cubicles just inside this particular exhibit. “I’m sure it was terrifying, though.”

Not scarier than being bunted into a pool with no knowledge on how to swim.

But same energy.

“Uh, yeah, it was!” Swiping for the handkerchief, Gavin grimaced at the ordeal he had just been through. “They're so fuckin’ - tall, you know what that's like when they're all trying to lick you? With those creepy snake tongues? I thought I was about to fucking die, get eaten by one of them or something. I'm never ever fucking going back to any of those exhibits. Zoos are the fuckin’ worst.” 

“Well, you’re still having a better day than Bubbles is.” 

“Eh?” Eyebrows furrowed at that, still roughly wiping at his face with the handkerchief, Gavin frowned as he seemingly realized what Noah meant. The gravity of it seemed to overtake his petty fretting. “Ah, shit. Was she the one who was attacked?” 

It made sense why he hadn’t made the connection yet. This repair bay was deceptively dry. But the closed double-doors facing the logistics area behind the stadium’s backdrop were large enough to see any size animatronic through them without a struggle. And as the smallest of her given group, the OO150 was easily concealed by the dividing wall partitioning the empty space into four segmented stalls. Rolling privacy screens had been erected around the berth atop which she was laying.

Trailing over, Noah grabbed one by the strut and pushed it aside for the reveal. “She’s still in one piece, at least.”

Rigged up to no less than a dozen different cables clipped to various points of her body, the cetacean-shaped animatronic stirred. Her once-black skin has brightened to an unhealthy ash tone, adorned with ever-morphing blotches and glitching, empty patches that revealed her white paneling, seams and all.

Two such cables led into her mouth, pinched by her lips. The eye facing them blinked sluggishly and panned around, alerted by the raspy squeaking of wheels on concrete.

_ Eee? _

The damage itself was concentrated across her back, before and behind her dorsal fin. Several ragged gashes and tears had peeled away enough artificial epidermis no amount of regrowth seemed able to cover it. The edges of the ‘wounds’ flickered and flared white, brought up short by the missing grafts.

Bone dry, her leaked thirium had solidified into an itchy-looking crust along her face and sides. Dried spots of it adorned the floor beneath the berth.

“Oh, fuck.” Taking an instinctive step back, Gavin hissed at the sight of her, before turning his whole body to block the view of her for a moment. Or it was a means to hide his own reaction, to a degree. “I, uh… I thought she couldn't survive outta the water, man.” 

“Ordinarily, no. She couldn’t. But the cables she’s rigged to are a kind of… life support system, if you will. It keeps her vital biocomponents pressurized, so that her own weight cannot crush and render them useless.”

_ Eee! _

Forcing a placating half smile on her behalf, Noah added, for effect, “She’s happy to see you, by the way.”

“Oh, yeah? Guess I'm some sorta happy to see you too, then, Bubbles.” Turning back toward her with an ironic scoff, Gavin at least followed suit for the time being with his own version of a smile - more of a smirk, but in the same vein. “Shit, guess that lick I got at least sent me back here, eh?” 

With a short whistle to that effect, Bubbles seemed to ‘nod’, unintentionally pulling at the cables inserted into her mouth. Her tail lifted only to smack back down against the metal slab.

“You may want to step up and pet her before the excitement results in her rolling off onto the floor.” Following his own advice, Nosh moved to the table’s side, reaching up to rub at the untorn skin at the base of her flipper. “Out of water, she does weigh about a ton.”

Squeaking, eye rolling shut, Bubbles leaned into the new sensation, almost quivering with joy.

“Oh, nice fuckin’ ploy, you two.” Stepping up to her nonetheless, Gavin gave in to the request for a pet or two, scratching a bit higher than Noah had, but not close to any of her extensive injuries, even if it was just for a moment. “There, there. Finally got me to do it, eh?” 

_ Phew! _

Venting a gust of air, the OO150 rocked sideways, apparently relishing in the touch, before settling back into the groove-like table.

“You’re a hard sell, Detective.”

Stealing the words out of his mouth, Noah saw movement inch around the far side of the stall. Immediately he recognized the slim, curvaceous figure and the wavy brunette locks. Partially obscured by a tassel of beads was a blue LED. Their visitor wore a standard single-piece zoo curator uniform, and boasted no telltale wings, besides.

He knew her without glancing at the illuminated name projected unto the blouse.

“As I warned you he was, Monique.”

Turning back around to raise an eyebrow at them, Gavin simply gave Bubbles one more pet before crossing his arms - instantly looking half standoffish for no good reason. “Eh, what can I say. I ain't been around a whole lotta fuckin’ big animals like these.” 

Outnumbered three to one, with no other human presence on the scene, perhaps he was right to feel a tad defensive.

Either way, Monique didn’t look immediately offended for it. She dealt with far bigger problems than a little social unreceptiveness on a daily basis. “After last time I suppose we can’t blame you for not having the best takeaway of them. But I seem to remember that was your partner’s doing, not our animals’.”

Noah matched her smile with a half smirk of his own. He was sure that security camera footage had been worth a few laughs, at least. “Guilty, ma’am.”

“It was some sorta fuckin’ team effort, really.” Muttering under his breath, Gavin shot Noah an offended glare, shaking his head slightly at his smirk. “But yeah, he was the one who started it. Not everyone gets to deal with that shit, gettin’ pushed in.” 

“You weren’t the first, if it’s any consolation.” Skirting around the exam berth, Monique spared Bubbles a caress over the nose, to which the OO150 whistled in pleasure. “Chimo grabbed Connor and yanked him in.”

“It was only the one time,” Noah explained, once faced with the disbelieving squint. There was a story Nick had only been too happy to recall, once he heard where they had spent the afternoon (and why Gavin came back to the station looking like a soaked, bedraggled cat). “She’s been well-behaved ever since.”

Which was relevant. Because, against all expectations, here they were to investigate another case of aberrant animatronic behavior.

But there was nothing funny or lighthearted about the damage this given subject had already done. The Detroit Zoo was already looking at a bill in the tens of thousands. Per its initiative, CyberLife would sooner send someone in to fix the problem at its cause than rack up credit charges for outstanding repair costs.

Monique has explained it all once already. Gavin could read between the lines, and ask more if he was unclear.

Better that than being accosted by giraffes again, anyway.

“Yeah, I'm sure she's been, least she didn't drag me around for too long…” Trailing off with a groan at whatever memory was playing, of unwittingly being two orcas’ human-sized toy, Gavin refocused his attention onto Bubbles. “And here we are again, I guess. Not gonna lie, was sorta fuckin’ hoping if I did hafta come back, it would be when Noah inevitably dragged me here.”

Meeting his eye, Bubbles gave a small discontented whine.

Frowning, Noah put the nonverbal sentiment into words. “Oh? I can assure you I don’t intend to kick you into a tank with a would-be man-killer.”

For a second, he seemed to speak out of turn. Monique’s expression creased in irritation, LED whirling to yellow. “I should hope not. It I told you, Felix isn’t like this. He’s had virtually no service needed since his introduction to the exhibit.”

“And as I said, the problem must be with an update,” Noah countered, while sparing Bubbles a scratch and wiping away the flakes of thirium caked onto her side. “The deactivation code should render him non-operational.”

At that the curator gave a scoff. “And as I told you, the board would rather not have to if it can be avoided. If we could only lure him into the drainable back tank, we might conduct a more in-depth exam once he’s beached.”

And that was why CyberLife had called them, presumably, to play the bait.

Or so it must have sounded.

“Aaand as I haven't fuckin’ said yet,  _ what?  _ I got no clue what the two of you are goin’ on about. I mean, I do, but in a much more real sense, I don't.” Looking back and forth between them, Gavin shrugged his ignorance. “I get he wouldn't act like this, but the hell we gonna do about it?” 

“As I said, Detective, we’re going to examine him, once he’s out of his element.” Monique’s expression trended toward something more like open exasperation. “If you wish, you can simply wait in the cafeteria until we’re done.”

It was hardly the most original suggestion ever, but certainly still on the table. Even after the mishap with the giraffes, it wasn’t as if Gavin were required to get hands-on with their newest ‘suspect’.

Noah would much rather his partner didn’t lose a limb today. They weren’t so easily replaced in humans.

"Fuck, everyone really wants me to go check out the goddamned cafeteria, what's new in there?" Rolling his eyes at her, Gavin shook his head at the suggestion, even if it was one that would admittedly make the situation easier for everyone involved. "Nah, I'll stay right here. Lemme see this killer dude." 

“Whale.”

“Whatever. What matters is the fuckin’ ‘killer’ part, N.”


End file.
